Wednesday, February 26, 2014

In a
remarkable turnaround (see previous posts), reflective of some very hard and
effective work on the part of the VEA Lobby Cadre, HB 877, the bill which would
have allowed local school boards to privatize the optional portion of the
hybrid VRS retirement plan was carried over by the Senate Finance
Committee.Few of the teachers hired
after January 1, 2014, who must go into the hybrid plan, will ever know what
VEA did for them today, but many years from now, when they retire, they will
have a more adequate and secure retirement because we won this battle.Senator McEachin's motion to carry HB 877
over to the 2015 session prevailed on a 13-4 vote.We had no better champion on this issue than
Senator Creigh Deeds, who spoke effectively on behalf of Virginia's future
school employees.

Our work is
not over on the diabetes bills.Our
concerns have been addressed in Delegate Cole's HB 134, but Senator Stuart's SB532 still has troublesome training and reporting requirements.The House Education Committee reported and
re-referred SB 532 to the House Appropriations Committee today without
conforming it to HB 134.

Delegate
Greason effectively spoke to the bill, pointing out that the improper
administration of insulin can be fatal.Greason asserted that "we are going to have to start drawing the
line on what we hold teachers accountable for and what we ask them to do."

VEA has long
contended that we need nurses in all of our schools.We cannot endlessly expand the responsibility
of instructional personnel to perform medical procedures, especially when an
error in administration can lead to the death of a child.

The delay of
the A-F delay is over.Today the House
conformed Sen. Miller’s SB 324 to Del. Landes’ HB 1229 and passed it 99-0.So the House still says A-F implementation
should be delayed 1 year.The Senate
will take up HB 1229 on the Senate Education and Health Committee tomorrow
morning.My guess is that they will
conform HB 1229 to SB 324, so the Senate will still say implementation should be
delayed 3 years.The bills would then
head to a committee of conference.Is
anyone betting on a two year delay?